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I just wrote a longish post about how income mobility in the United States is actually pretty anemic, but our blog software ate it and I don’t feel like trying to recreate it. So here’s the nickel summary: despite what Florida senate candidate Marco Rubio says, America isn’t the only place where you can start a business in a spare bedroom. In fact, whenever you hear a politician say “only in America,” it’s an almost certain dead giveaway that they’re blowing smoke. On the specific question of rags to riches stories, the fact is that America has less income mobility than most other rich countries, and that mobility has been declining for the past several decades.

There’s a longer version of this, but you’ll just have to pretend that I wrote it and you read it. In the meantime, take my word for it. Or, if you don’t trust me, take David Frum’s word for it.

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We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't find elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

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